Radar transceiver assemblies include at least a pair of transceivers mounted on the same surface of a substrate. The radar transceiver assemblies further include a plurality of transmit and receive antennas electrically coupled to the radar transceivers. The radar transceivers are disposed on the same surface of the substrate. The receive antennas are spaced apart from each other.
With reference now to FIG. 1, an embodiment of a currently known radar transceiver assembly 100 is provided. The radar transceiver assembly 100 includes a first transceiver chip 102 and a second transceiver chip 104. The first and second transceiver chips 102, 104 are mounted on the top surface of a substrate 106. Each of the first and second transceiver chips 102, 104 illustratively include an array of transmit antennas 108 and an array of receive antennas 110. In this instance, each array includes four transmit antennas 108a and four receive antennas 110a respectively.
Each antenna array 108, 110 respectively transmits and receives a radar signal. Each antenna array 108, 110 has a respective center signal as indicated by “TC” (Transmit Center) and “RC” (Receive Center). It is known that the distance between the center of respective receive antenna arrays 110a affects the ghost lobes and the beam width. As used herein, “ghost lobe” refers to the signature pattern disposed on each side of a center signal of respective receive and transmit signal as generally shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. In particular, the greater the distance, the greater the signature of ghost lobes and the broader the signal of the receive beam.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the radar transceiver assembly 100 shown in FIG. 1 and illustrates the center signal of the respective array of receive antennas. It is known that the larger the distance between the center signals RC1 and RC2, the larger the signature of ghost lobes. It is further appreciated that the size of the ghost lobe and the beam affects the quality of the receive signal. In particular, the wider the receive beam and the larger the ghost lobes, the poorer the quality of the receive signal.
FIG. 1 also shows radar transceiver assemblies 100 are currently assembled with both the transceiver chips 102, 104 and the receive and transmit array antennas 110, 108 mounted on the same side of the substrate 106. Such an arrangement may limit the capabilities of the radar transceiver as packaging space may limit the number of transmit and receive antennas that may fit onto the substrate.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a radar transceiver assembly wherein both sides of the substrate may be used to accommodate receive and transmit antennas so as to maximize packaging space. It further remains desirable to have a radar transceiver assembly wherein the occurrence of ghost lobes is minimized and the width of the receive beam is narrowed relative to current radar assembly antennas.